Comments on Douglas Macgregor

The reader who sent me this asked if found what Macgregor wrote here to be offensive.

Let me preface my response: I clearly remember Douglas Macgregor from my K-12 education at the William Penn Charter School in Philadelphia, even though he was several years my senior.  Even as a boy, I was impressed with his intellect and eloquence, though I was surprised that he was so outspoken about his ultra-conservative beliefs, and had such a great enthusiasm for war, especially considering that “PC” is a Quaker school, built around a religious philosophy centered on pacifism.

As anyone could have predicted, Macgregor went on to a stratospheric career in the U.S. military, and is a former government official, author, consultant, and political commentator.

To answer the question, I do indeed find what he wrote here to be offensive, though perhaps stupid is a better descriptor.  The idea that people of my age have minds that can’t be accessed with the truth is preposterous, and yes, deeply insulting.

What he means by all of this, of course, is that most boomers, who experienced the cultural reformation of the 1960s and who, in general, enjoyed better educations than young Americans today, tend to have liberal values that he finds, and has always found, abhorrent.